Career Itch Stories

Meet Other Career Itch-ers...

Susan, Virtual Assistant

I spent 20 years as a PA in London and overseas working for high profile investors and captains of industry.  In 2002 when my children were aged three and five I was diagnosed with a benign brain tumour and fortunately, made a full recovery.  I continued to work full-time often travelling overseas to organise PR and charity events and trade exhibitions.

Despite having a great job, I increasingly felt that something had to change: I felt guilty at having to leave the office on the dot of 5:30 p.m. and guiltier still for being the last mum to collect my children from the childminder.

I had read a couple of articles about virtual assistants and began to think seriously about setting up my own business.  I had intended to give myself a year’s pre-launch but just a month later, my boss tried to pressure me into cancelling a two hour, planned break to watch my children’s Nativity play.  I resigned the following morning and launched Moore VA a month later with my ex employer as my first client.

The business grew steadily and in 2008 I was voted Outstanding VA of the Year at the industry awards.  Since then I’ve built a team of associates located in the UK, Europe and Canada.  We specialise in working with clients who want to raise their profile so working with Grace has given me a valuable insight into all that’s involved – from the nitty gritty to the bigger picture.

I’m learning all the time, have considerably reduced my carbon footprint with my 30 second commute and have been at every Nativity play since.  I’m now planning to write a How To book on running a VA business.

Nicole, Part-Time/Freelance Online Marketing Manager

Back in 1997, I completed my degree in Marketing, and after putting off entering the job market by travelling around the world for nearly 2 years, I worked my way through PR, and Marketing roles until I found a career niche that was  not only something I enjoyed doing, but something I was good at - Online Marketing. I continued to work my way up through Marketing Manager type roles within the Travel Industry until I entered the Retail Industry and became Online Marketing Manager for a major retailer. It was at this place in my career that I hit 'The Career Itch’ point. I was 34 and felt like something was missing! Where was I to go from here? did I want to be any higher on the ladder? Was what I was doing what I really wanted? It was like I had hit a crossroads with so many signs to different destinations that I didn’t know which way to go. I did however know one thing!! I needed to act on how I was feeling.

I started to act on my Career Itch feelings, by investigating the realities and implications of other avenues, yet as I was doing this, I fell pregnant. This, for me, turned out to be the something I was missing!

I now work part-time as an Online Marketing Manager for a major retailer and also freelance for Grace. This solution gives me enough flexibility to spend time with my daughter and to also sustain and continue to enjoy my work and build on my career. So…..my career itch story ends with a beautiful little girl and flexible working hours’ job….perfect!

Karin, freelance PR consultant

After finishing university I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but had a vague idea about getting into advertising. I answered an advert in the Evening Standard for a PR Assistant and ended up joining a city based travel PR and advertising agency. I therefore ‘fell’ into PR as it was the first job I got! I quickly moved up the ranks and then onto a larger agency, before moving in-house to a well-known ISP/entertainment web site as PR manager.

The dot com bubble burst around two years into this role and the whole marketing team got made redundant. I guess it was around this time that I can first pin point experiencing The Career Itch. My partner at that time also faced redundancy from another well-known dot com and we both decided to take a career break and use our redundancy money to go travelling for a year. On my return I joined a travel retailer, where I stayed for almost five years. I loved my role there and having started in travel PR at the start of my career felt I had come full circle. Working for a global travel company was fantastic and I was challenged with setting up their first UK press office, which was both exciting and rewarding, plus I got to travel extensively.

Around three years in though I felt that familiar feeling again, which I now recognise as the Career Itch. I could do my job standing on my feet and press coverage was rolling in, but due to budgets I couldn’t grow the team or move up the ranks as I was already at the top in PR - so unless I wanted to change direction in the business it was time to move on. This is when I first met Grace Owen and she gave me the tools and encouragement to think through what I wanted to do and have the courage to eventually do it.

This process however did take almost another year as I tried to decide what path to take. Freelance? Another in-house role? A property developer even! Eventually I left and I set up as a PR freelancer and have successfully made a living for the past three years. I still do get the Career Itch and when I recognise it I go off and explore other avenues. Over the past year I have looked into veterinary nursing, a veterinary degree, property developing and a dog walking business to name just a few. I have also started volunteering for my local theatre which I love.

There are some familiar themes here and I am happy to research these, whilst continuing my bread and butter work. Right now I want to grow my PR business and make a success of it, whereas when I started I felt it may be something I would do in the interim whilst changing to a different career.

I believe the Career Itch will come and go for the rest of my working life, but recognising it has been important to me and I now realise it is part of the process of exploring new avenues and opportunities - whether this will result in a complete career change at some point or portfolio working in several fields - only time will tell!!

Lisa, Company Director

After graduating from university in Toronto, Canada, I travelled for a year in South East Asia and LOVED it! When my year was up, I felt the need to settle down and get a serious ‘job’. I worked for a corporate event producer and loved the job, but not the boss!

I moved on to work for 4 years at Nortel Networks as the Design Director for Internet and New Media Projects in their corporate studio. When my boss told me she was moving on, I panicked! She was the best and no one else would be able to fill her shoes. This got me thinking… I didn’t want to work for anyone else – I wanted to be my own boss!

In 1998, I did my homework, made some enquiries and decided that I wanted to live and work in London for a few years. I made it over here, but because of my visa situation, I was stuck ‘working for someone else’ for another 4 years. I had an incredible corporate client list (ICL Fujitsu, WorldOnline (now Tiscali), 4i Limited…) and an even more diverse set of roles & responsibilities (New Media Producer, Designer, Information Architect, Studio Manager…). I enjoyed what I was doing, but in 2003 when I was no longer tied to that company, I decided it was finally time to be my own boss.

I set up PennInk Productions Limited and through word of mouth, got some great clients – not as large corporates, but I was happy with that. I was working on the type of thing I loved to do – graphic design, branding and websites!

I got the Career Itch a number of times in my working life, but my ‘Itch’ was satisfied when I realised it wasn’t ‘what’ I was doing… it was ‘who’ I was doing it for that was the issue!

7 years later and I’m still loving what I do – I like my clients, I like the work, I like the hours, but most importantly… I like my boss!